1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to electronic cables for catheterized medical applications.
2. Introduction to the Invention
Medical instruments employ catheters for a wide range of uses, including imaging, sensing, and treatment of internal tissue. For instance, catheters are inserted into a patient's blood vessels, such as to reach the heart for imaging or therapeutic action. Catheters have one or more lumens or bores that extend the length of the catheter, and through which wires or other implements pass. These may include mechanical guide wires used to bend and steer the catheter for insertion, fiber optic or current carrying wires used to provide a light source, and signal wires used to carry images or other sensing signals.
Catheters used during imaging procedures such as by Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) may employ components able to provide a detectable reference point in space, so that the MRI software can locate the catheter, aiding its navigation to a desired location via a desired path. Such elements may employ a series of coils that each wraps closely about the exterior of the catheter at intervals along the length of the catheter near the free end. These coils may also be covered with thin layers of other materials to help seal the catheter, make the surface smoother, or affect the flexibility of the catheter region containing the coils. However, the conventional approaches employed to connect these coils to wires extending to instrumentation are bulky, creating significant lumps that limit the vessels in which the catheter may be inserted, or which require more internal space and thus limit the catheter's capacity to host other needed lumens for other functions.
Accordingly, there is a need for a catheter with compact interconnections to the components employed.